2017 comes in with a bang - Welcome L17s!

[Hekomi]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon Bear

I liked your last video with Hopping Hammy awhile back, look forward to you upcoming video as well Being a breeder you obviously are knowledgeable and equipped to deal with emergencies but casual breeders might not have those resources that you do.

Thank you! Shockingly, a lot of breeders who "play at ethical" (as I call it) are not equipped either. They make themselves sound knowledgeable but they really aren't, and won't put the care of their animals before their egos. Sadly.

There is a huge backyard breeder problem in North America. There are so so so many. I try to be as transparent as possible in the choices and decisions I make. I hope it helps.

[Cinnamon Bear]

True, I'm sure the complexity of breeding ethically or professionally, fake breeders wouldn't have any idea on the language that breeders use, that are beyond me

You should use some of that language in the video to make casual breeders realize that they aren't breeding for the betterment of the species but like you said for their own agendas, not keeping the hamsters safe first.

I called a ad out of a newspaper just to see what this was (from another city). Turned out the lady sent me pics on the cell phone and their animals were in critter trail cages with pine bedding. Luckily her litter came out ok but she has no idea on the health vulnerabilities of her pups, I kindly helped her come up with a bigger cage, bin cage and helped her to get paper bedding instead of the pine.

I'm not saying I know anything about breeding, was just interested in the ad for some reason.

[Hekomi]

Originally Posted by Cinnamon Bear

True, I'm sure the complexity of breeding ethically or professionally, fake breeders wouldn't have any idea on the language that breeders use, that are beyond me

You should use some of that language in the video to make casual breeders realize that they aren't breeding for the betterment of the species but like you said for their own agendas, not keeping the hamsters safe first.

I called a add out of a newspaper just to see what this was (from another city). Turned out the lady sent me pics on the cell phone and their animals were in critter trail cages with pine bedding. Luckily her litter came out ok but she has no idea on the health vulnerabilities of her pups, I kindly helped her come up with a bigger cage, bin cage and helped her to get paper bedding instead of the pine.

I'm not saying I know anything about breeding, was just interested in the ad for some reason.

Of course! Some of them try, but fail miserably. Or their care is questionable, and the actions they do concerning (ie. holding pups before eyes are open). It's bleh. And easy to fall into it if you don't know, as an adopter, what to look for!

I should. I'll have to write something up eventually. Everything I seem to write about it is very long winded and I don't want the video to be *too* long.

Oh dear. Poor babies. I hope things go okay... good on you for helping correct her husbandry! So many people ignore even proper husbandry and just go right to breeding! It's so strange to me.

[Hekomi]

Hamdad, aka my partner, has been home to check on the family. Starbuck is a failure at nest making... haha which is something we've never seen before. I almost never get such clear views into the nest!

Looks to be a good number and all seem happy and healthy. Very opinionated just like their mother, they are quite demanding and loud when she leaves to grab some porridge.

[Drago]

Glad to hear her and her pups are doing well! You're certainly going to have your hands full when they get older!

[Hekomi]

Originally Posted by Drago

Glad to hear her and her pups are doing well! You're certainly going to have your hands full when they get older!

Certainly! We just recently had an 18 pup litter in October. Sadly we did lose three pups but 15 was definitely crazy. It was a lot of fun and I learned lots too. Large litters are new to me as usually we have 3-6 pups.

We do however have a waitlist of 60 people or so so I'm glad for a large litter to start getting pups to their amazing new families. We make sure all our pups go to the best possible homes possible - with suitable caging, wheels and everything else!

We should also have another litter by the end of the month so that will also be busy, haha.

[Hamsterita]

WOW! What an adventure. I'm glad it had a happy ending (or at least no so tragic). I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, that's for sure, but it's nice to know how well you handled everything.

Good look with the new litters!! Looking forward to see some pics of them

[Hekomi]

Originally Posted by Hamsterita

WOW! What an adventure. I'm glad it had a happy ending (or at least no so tragic). I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, that's for sure, but it's nice to know how well you handled everything.

Good look with the new litters!! Looking forward to see some pics of them

It definitely was...! It was still very sad. Gherkin had 12 pups in total; and only one survived. I feel very responsible (though I do acknowledge I couldn't have controlled the outcome). I feel like a lot of breeding just glance over the risks. "It won't happen to me" mindset. Sadly, Gherkin's breeding was completely by the books - both pedigreed, complimentary genotypes, proper age on both, supplemented and cared for properly leading up to birth. Goes to show things will go wrong at the best of times!

The pups are doing very well, and Starbuck is too. She is VERY sassy, more so usually than my mums are. I quietly switch out bowls full of supplements and cucumber for her, and she chases my hand and pounces it. She doesn't ever hurt me, but I definitely wouldn't provoke momma bear!

Her pups look fantastic though, and are oh so vocal. Even if her hormones are making her rather testy and territorial with me (as expected!) she's made a fabulous mum.

Now the slow wait until colours come in, then fur, then eyes open!

[Hamsterita]

Things happens. Even us, humans can have problems giving birth. She's alive and that's what's important. I don't know anything about breeding, but I suppose that If she had that problem, no matter what you did or what you could have done, the pups were going to be at risk anyway.


Starbucks is a hell of a mum!! I'm glad that they're doing ok

[Hekomi]

Originally Posted by Hamsterita

Things happens. Even us, humans can have problems giving birth. She's alive and that's what's important. I don't know anything about breeding, but I suppose that If she had that problem, no matter what you did or what you could have done, the pups were going to be at risk anyway.


Starbucks is a hell of a mum!! I'm glad that they're doing ok

Definiely. It made me appreciate when things do go well much more and reminded me of the responsibilities I do have. While I'll probably always blame myself, I am proud of the way myself and my partner reacted in the situation. While we didn't quite make all the correct decisions for everything else in that situation (which is a long story in of itself) we did good by Gherkin.

As for Starbuck, she's doing great. She's relaxed some around me (but not my partner so I'll continue giving the supplements). She finally built somewhat of a nest, so we no longer have a good look in on the babies, which is fine.

From what we did see, we have at least three torts (all females should be torts) and some dark pigmented pups and some surprising light ones. They don't appear to have red eyes (though there is some eye colour discrepancy). My best guess is extreme dilute golden, however I almost never see pups this little and it's not a gene I've had before.

Time will tell and soon the pups will be erupting out of the nest.